Hi all, we are hiring a remote worker and will be supplying a laptop to them. The laptop will be running a Debian variant of Linux on it.

We are a small shop and this is the first time we have entrusted somebody outside of our small pool of trusted employees.

We have sensitive client data on the laptop that they need to access for their day-to-day work.

However, if something goes wrong, and they do the wrong thing, we want to be able to send out some kind of command or similar, that will completely lock, block, or wipe the sensitive data.

We don’t want any form of spying or tracking. We are not interested in seeing how they use the computer, or any of the logs. We just want to be able to delete that data, or block access, if they don’t return the laptop when they leave, or if they steal the laptop, or if they do the wrong thing.

What systems are in place in the world of Linux that could do this?

Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated? Thank you.

    • sudneo@lemm.ee
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      20 days ago

      Jamf doesn’t do anything for this problem, besides costing you a fortune in both license and maintenance/operation. Especially if you are not a Mac shop.

      MDM at most can be used as a reactive tool to do something on the machine - as long as the one with the machine in their hand leaves the network connection on.

      There are much cheaper solution to do that for 1 machine, and -as others correctly pointed out- the only solution (partial) here is not storing the data on a machine you don’t control. Period.